A law aimed at expressly prohibiting caste discrimination in California was overwhelmingly approved by the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, despite heavy opposition from Indian-American individuals, business and religious organisations.
The measure, presented by State Senator Aisha Wahab, proposes to alter the Unruh Civil Rights Act’s anti-discrimination policy by including caste as a protected group.
This decision has sparked widespread outrage in the United States. To protest the proposed California Caste Bill SB 403, major Hindu and Indian companies and temples have issued a strong statement condemning it.
The signatories to this statement include:
– Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), the largest hotel owners association in the nation with 20,000 members who own 60% of the hotels in the United States, responsible for 1.7 per cent of the nation’s GDP.
– AASOA representing over 8300 store owners throughout the nation
– Hindu Mandir Executives’ Conference (HMEC) an umbrella organisation of Hindu temples in North America with the participation of 600 temples in its conferences
– Hindu Business Network (HBN)
– Hindu Policy Research and Advocacy Collective (HinduPACT), an initiative of World Hindu Council of America (VHPA), the oldest and one of the largest Hindu organisation in the US
It is not the first-time anti-caste legislation is being passed in the US. On February, 2023 Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Alternative political party, succeeded in passing a bill adding the category of ‘caste’ to the city’s non-discrimination statute.
So, what is all the fuzz about? While Hindus are uniting in India, in abroad anti-Hindu forces are sowing discord among NRI community by raising false narrative about divisionary practices. And what is the result?
If we look in to the rising Hindumisia in the West and the pattern of so called ‘activists’ trying to divide Hindu community, one thing is clear, there are vested ‘activists’ with vested ‘funded’ interests sitting behind the wheel.
But, before we head in to the legislation itself which will legalise ethnic profiling of Hindus in US, it is important to understand the vested activists who are behind this anti-Hindu propaganda.
This includes anti-Hindu activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan.
Equity Labs And The Truth Behind Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Harking back to the horror of days of EVR, when venom was spewed on Hindus in Nazi style, Mrs. Soundararajan now imports this toxic EVR politics into dividing the Hindu community abroad. The anti-Hindu hate in the west fuelled by despicable activists is a threat that needs to be checked for the harmony of Hindu community.
Equality Labs, the brain behind the anti-caste discrimination resolution in Seattle, has been spearheading a nationwide campaign. Seattle became the first US city to outlaw caste discrimination in February. In the United States, Equity Labs founded by Thenmozhi Soundararajan an alleged Dalit and apparently converted to Christianity is notoriously known for pushing deeply orchestrated anti-Hindu and anti-India propaganda demonizing Hinduism.
South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SALT) and Equity Labs pushed anti-CAA protests which culminated in the 2020 Delhi riot. Other initiatives such as Students Against Hindutva, Holi Against Hindutva, and Stand with Kashmir are not just campaign hashtags but support violent Islamists and terrorists.
Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), an organization with links to Islamic terror groups is listed as one of the signatories on the website of Holi Against Hindutva (cleverly hidden among the various student groups).
Thenmozhi Soundararajan and equity labs has a history of displaying constant Hindumisia and spreading false information about Hinduism and cultivating anti-Hindu hate in the US.
For example, In April 2022, tech giant Google cancelled a talk by Thenmozhi Soundararajan, owing to the fear that it might create ‘division and rancour’ in the workplace. In another instance she joined White Supremacists in targeting Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal over his caste when he was newly appointed. They falsely assumed him to be Brahmin and targeted him over the same. Thenmozhi went to the extent of claiming that it is a tradition for “White cismen” to transfer power to “Brahmin cismen” in the Silicon Valley. Her allegations reek of caste hatred as Parag Agrawal was chosen solely based on his credentials. He has been a long-time employee at Twitter and had very good relations with Jack Dorsey himself. Even so, Thenmozhi Soundararajan made it appear as if caste had a major role to play in the decision.
Who can forget that back in 2018, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, had stoked a massive controversy when he held an anti-Brahmin placard that said ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy’, a poster designed by Thenmozhi Soundararajan. She not only regularly lambasts Hinduism regularly but also discredits Hindu beliefs, practices, and traditions.
Last year, anti-Brahmin activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan went on an unhinged tirade against the ancient Indian Hindu practice of Yoga. In a tweet, she claimed, “What does it mean to address the structural violence at the heart of yoga? I break the silence on the religious abuse that is at the heart of yoga and how healing begins with de-brahminising and decolonizing.”
The anti-Brahmin activist then went on to demonise Hindu beliefs of ‘Dharma’ and ‘Karma,’ based on her skewed understanding of the concepts. She then whitewashed the gory history of the Islamic invasion and Christian evangelism by suggesting that forceful conversions to Abrahamic Faiths were in fact the fallout of Brahmanism in India.
California Caste Bill SB 403
Hindus in US are protesting the bill. Vipul Patel, president of Asian American Shop Owners Association (AASOA), said the bill is based on the fabricated narrative of caste discrimination in America. In order to have a clear understanding we need to understand how this specific legislation reeks of Hindumisia.
The bill presents a convoluted and broad definition of “caste.” The definition of “caste” in this bill makes every person of the Indian subcontinent, and businesses run by them suspect of discrimination, including those who practice vegetarianism!
The bill perpetuates the colonial narrative of “caste,” introduced by the Portuguese and promoted by British colonialists. It will lead to harassment, discrimination, bullying and violence against Hindus. The promoters of the “caste” narrative have malevolent intentions, as demonstrated by their public statements.
One statement, for example, says, “Hindus are sick people of India, it is their religious books who train the mind.”
This bill is built on unsubstantiated data and an unproven court case. It also makes ugly and unsubstantiated claims about South Asians engaging in harassment, bias, wage theft and caste discrimination in various sectors.
SB-403, not only maligns the Hindus but treats them in a manner different from every other racial and ethnic group as a matter of policy.
Apart from the vague definition of caste, the bill also launches an invasion of privacy against the Hindus. It problematizes associational marriages and marriage preferences of South Asians, as a result implementation and enforcement of SB-403 may require intrusive questions about marriage and socializing preferences.
There are an estimated 3.2 million Hindu Americans of Indian origin in the US and in this atmosphere of Hindumisia in the US, none of their lives seems to be safe at this moment.
Apart from this there are ample evidences that this legislation is being crafted solely to target Hindus in the US subjecting them to racial profiling. As per studies, discrimination on the basis of caste are extremely rare.
Half of Indian Americans surveyed in this study reported alleged discrimination, the basis of discrimination reported was mainly colour (30%), gender (18%), religion (18%) and national origin (1%).
Only 5% of those surveyed reported encountering alleged discrimination based on caste, with almost half of those respondents reporting the perpetrator of the alleged discrimination being of non-Indian origin, indicating that caste may have been conflated with some other factor or basis.
Most Hindu respondents (53%) do not identify with any caste group at all. Within the group that does identify with a caste, there is a significantly lower number of U.S.-born Hindu Indian Americans who identify with a caste group (34%) versus those that are foreign-born (53%), which may indicate that caste identification becomes increasingly less relevant with every generation. The study and the findings make us question the intention behind the springing up of anti-caste legislation.
Is it an attempt by vested activists and Left-Liberal cancel culture cannibals to demonize Hinduism? Or is it a master plan to divide and sow discord within NRI community in the US? Whatever the truth is, Hindu community in the US is putting up brave resistance against the propaganda against Sanatana Dharma.
Rising Hindumisia In The West
Hindumisia or anti-Hindu hatred have a tragically long history which continues to this day across the globe. They are fuelled by a range of factors, including religious intolerance, religious exclusivism, a lack of religious literacy, misrepresentation in the media, academic bias still rooted in oftentimes racist, colonial-era mis portrayals and, in the diaspora, generalised anti-immigrant xenophobia and hatred.
This has been professed by colonisers of the Indian subcontinent in form of control over temple wealth and enactment of acts such as Lex Loci Act, 1850 which was one of the root causes for 1857 first war of Indian Independence.
Presently, this is being done in Islamic countries and western nations which are being ignored by mainstream media. In Pakistan for example, 1,000 girls between the ages of 12-25 from minorities are forcibly converted to Islam every year and married to their abductors, which described the situation as a “human-rights catastrophe” and in Bangladesh, these incidents are being considered as a part of daily life for Hindus.
For example, a mob of 200 perpetrators desecrated ISKON temple in Dhaka which was part of incidents targeting Hindu’s in Bangladesh and surprisingly this incident happened on March 17th, 2022 which came right after the United Nations (UN) declared March 15th, 2022 as International Day to combat Islamophobia. India had risen to this occasion and rightly questioned the existing bias during the passage of the UN resolution.
During the passage, India along with France explained ‘Vote of concern’ stating that combatting the hatred against one specific religion was being elevated to an international day for the first time. In fact, this also marked the instance where in atrocities against other religions, specifically, non-Abrahamic religions are being ignored. The political ambivalence to concerns of Hindu community is also an issue in the West. Recent attacks and the lack of credible condemnation against vandalization of Hindu temples in Australia, vandalization of temples in Canada, anti-Hindu violence in the UK and general violence against Hindu’s in the Subcontinent speaks volumes on this issue.
The US, leader of human rights enforcing its ambit via military measures across the world had never recognized slaughter of Hindu Bangladeshis during 1971 war but US administration was happy to recognise Armenian genocide by Turkey which fits their propaganda of being human rights champions perfectly.
The violence against Hindus and scathing attacks in the form of discriminatory legislation in western nations are resulting in a wave of anti-Hindu climate fuelled by ‘paid’ activists spreading misinformation about Hindu culture and traditions. It is high time that these so called ‘progressive regions’ of the world acknowledge rampant anti-Hindu hate crimes and take measures against it instead discriminating against the victim, which are the Hindus themselves.
In short, the SB 403 is a dangerous anti-Hindu racist and casteist legislation which has the potential to victimize the so-called ‘victims’ themselves who are asking for it today.
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What Ukraine’s Insult Of Maa Kaali Tells Us About The Western Psyche
On 30 April 2023, the official Twitter handle of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense posted a morphed image of the revered Hindu Goddess Kaali in an objectionable manner.
The ‘Defense of Ukraine’ handle posted an illustration of the Hindu deity, wherein Goddess Kali was shown having an ‘upskirt moment’ similar to Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe.
“Work of art,” it said in that tweet.
Ukraine through its official government ID insults Hindu Gods and then wonders why Indians prefer Russia over them. Russia has no problem with the Hinduness of India, only the liberal west does.
The ease of being an ally to Russians is its non-ideological, with only focus on mutual material benefits. But cost of being a western ally is it demands you wipe off your 5000 year civilizational history & conform to western values.
While the west funds conversions, actively grooms anti-Hindu academia & now weaponizes India’s caste structure against Indians living everywhere globally, Russia has no problem with how India runs itself or in acknowledging that it is a Hindu majority state.
For a nation like India, forged out of 1000 years of Islamic invasions and colonial slavery, that lost 1/4th of its land to religious partition, its biggest priorities are protecting its sovereignty and religious identity.
But west employs every resource at its disposal to undermine Indian sovereignty and insult Hindu identity, yet complains that India remains neutral between them and Russia.
Speaking of remaining neutral, let’s see how Ukraine has remained neutral on India.
Ukraine has always pursued an anti-India foreign policy. It had voted for sanctions on India when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government carried out nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998. Ukraine had called for United Nations intervention on Kashmir after India abrogated Article 370. It even supplies weapons to Pakistan. Yet, it has the audacity to ask for India to remain neutral and now insults Maa Kaali.
What the Ukrainian defence ministry tweeted about Maa Kali is exactly what the entire west would do if they didn’t have corporations that needed India’s market to sell their products to. Ukraine is just suicidal enough to actually do it.
When the west wants to hurt India, it’s not by accident they always choose Hinduism. Because the western mind knows exactly what India’s soul is. And what will hurt. It’s time India stops pretending to be secular, as the world is going to treat it as a Hindu nation anyway.
Russia may not be our best friend but doesn’t threaten India’s autonomy or sermonize us on secularism, democracy and Kashmir. India can’t afford to be blind allies of a western order that wants to systematically erode it’s religious and cultural character through liberal hegemony.
(This article has been written based on Cogito’s tweet on the same subject.)
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